CCB arrested Nikhil Sosale on CM’s orders, says lawyer to HC

The CCB sleuths arrested Nikhil Sosale, the marketing and revenue head of RCB, because Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ordered the arrest, submitted his lawyer to the Karnataka High Court on Monday.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Sosale challenging his arrest on June 6.

Sosale was arrested at Bengaluru Airport, as he was heading to Dubai, on an FIR filed in the aftermath of the stampede incident near M Chinnaswamy Stadium, which claimed 11 lives.

Sosale’s lawyer had also argued that he was not arrested by either Ashok Nagar police (where Sosale stays) or Cubbon Park police (under whose jurisdiction the stadium falls) but by the Central Crime Branch of Bengaluru.

“It was not part of the investigation, just because the CM said, the CCB arrested him, though they are not investigating the case,” he contended.

When the petition came up for hearing on June 6 afternoon session, Justice SR Krishna Kumar, who heard the petition, had declined an interim relief from arrest and had adjourned the case to June 9.

Later, Sosale, along with three others from DNA Entertainment Pvt Ltd, were remanded to 14-day judicial custody by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court.